A TEST OF FAITH: Woman fights breast cancer as she puts her faith in God

Byrd sings praise music during a worship before her weekly women's Bible study group at Crossroads Christian Church on Sept. 19. Byrd found God and began regularly attending church in April. She is grateful for the women in the group who have stepped up and offered her constant prayers, encouragement, home-cooked meals and a shoulder to cry on when Byrd is feeling overwhelmed.

Nancy Byrd wipes tears of joy and water from her face after Paul Linge, evangelism pastor at Crossroads Christian Church, baptizes her Oct. 28. For Byrd, her baptism was the beginning of a new life for her, one which she gives control of her life over to God. It has helped give her hope and guidance as she battles her cancer. "Today was such an awesome day," Byrd said.

Corri Brooks, ministry leader at Crossroads Christian Church, offers Byrd a hug and prays over her after she was baptized on Oct. 28. Brooks gathered a group of women to take meals to Byrd for several weeks and introduced her to other cancer survivors who have offered a great deal of support.

Deana Byrd, 13, laughs at her mother, Nancy, as she sits in the Deaconess Pediatric ICU getting her monthly medicine to treat her juvenile rheumatoid arthritis Sept. 21. Deana also has an IRAK-4 deficiency, an inherited disorder of the immune system, which leads to recurrent infections, most commonly pneumonia, which she has had 35 times. Every month she must go up to Indianapolis to Riley's to get a treatment that gives her an immune system to keep her healthy.

Left: Byrd struggles with pain and feeling rundown as she gets her four-hour chemotherapy treatment Oct. 26 at the St. Mary's Infusion Center. Her body has not responded well to treatments and because of low white-cell counts she has been in and out of the hospital during her 16 weeks of treatment. Right: Deana Byrd, 13, laughs at her mother, Nancy, as she sits in the Deaconess Pediatric ICU on Sept. 21 getting her monthly medicine to treat her juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Deana also has an IRAK-4 deficiency, an inherited disorder of the immune system, which leads to recurrent infections, most commonly pneumonia, which she has had 35 times.

When Nancy Byrd found her faith last spring, she didn't know how quickly she would be put to the test. In April, Byrd started attending church regularly. "I knew that I was afraid of dying and not going to heaven," Byrd said. " I felt in my heart the need to fully commit and surrender to God."

Then in June, Byrd heard the words she had feared for years: "You have breast cancer." Those words for an instant sucked the air out of her as she tried to wrap her head around her diagnosis, her next steps and her future.

With a family history of cancer, Byrd, 35, had been receiving mammograms since she was 28 years old and regularly was tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene; the results always came back normal.

When she first felt a lump, doctors did not seem too concerned. But Byrd persisted and asked doctors for a biopsy. That persistence may have saved her life.

The breast cancer that doctors found was the most aggressive kind. Within a few weeks, Byrd underwent a double mastectomy. Chemotherapy treatments were a must.

"I just kept on thinking this can't be happening to me," Byrd recalls.

Byrd was no stranger to life- changing medical news. She has spent the last 11 years in and out of hospitals and gone to doctors' appointments on a weekly basis with her 13-year-old daughter, Deana.

Her daughter has an IRAK-4 deficiency, an inherited disorder of the immune system, which leads to recurrent infections, most commonly pneumonia. Deana has been treated for pneumonia 35 times. She also suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, specific antibody deficiency, fibromyalgia, asthma, allergies and scoliosis.

Every month, Deana must travel to Indianapolis to Riley Hospital for Children for a treatment that gives her body an immune system for the month. However, since she is at risk when illness becomes prevalent at school, she often has to stay home to avoid being hospitalized.

"At first when I got cancer, I was mad at God, because I was like 'God, you know that I have a special-needs child who requires so much medical attention, how in the world could you let me get cancer?' " Byrd said.

The weekend following her diagnosis, Byrd went to services at Crossroads Christian Church with a heavy heart.

During the worship time, as lyrics scrolled across the screen for a song, tears started streaming down Byrd's face.

"In that worship, God revealed to me that he didn't punish me with cancer, he simply let life take that turn to make me stronger and pull me closer to him. You see, if I wasn't going through cancer right now I don't think I would be this close to God. I wouldn't be relying on him like I do if I wasn't suffering." she said.

Treatments began taking their toll on Byrd and she landed in the hospital for more than a week. The cancer and Deana's constant medical care forced Byrd's husband, Eddie, to quit his job to care for the family, which has left them financially strapped. Medical bills and medications for Nancy and Deana, that can run anywhere from $300 to $5,000 a month, are not always covered by insurance, adding stress.

Money for food is tight each month. Byrd often worries if she is going to have enough to feed her kids. The family's vehicle, a 1995 Oldsmobile van, has no heat or defrost and is not very safe to drive, but it's the family's only way to and from doctors' appointments locally as well as in Indianapolis.

As Byrd continued to fight her battle with cancer, complications set in and sent her back and forth to the hospital for a total of 30 days. The treatments have left her with some damage to her bones and a compromised immune system. She remains homebound until her body is strong enough to fight infections she would be exposed to in public places. She says doctors hope that with surgery and chemo they have killed all the cancer and that her cancer will remain in remission.

It would be easy to get down but, instead, Byrd sees it as a challenge to put more trust in her faith and strengthen her relationship with God and others in her church and cancer support group.

On Oct. 28, the anniversary of her mother's death, Byrd was baptized. For Byrd, that marked a new day in her faith journey. As she walked into the pool of water she prayed for healing, not just from cancer but in all aspects of her life.

"I asked God to make me a new Nancy," she said. "Then, as I was dunked under water, I felt like the water was pouring off me and all that I had prayed for was washing and draining off me, too.

"When I start to pray about my troubles, (God) reminds me even as I struggle daily, to praise his name in all my day and he will then bless me ... to be thankful for what I have and remember that God will provide me with what I need," she said.

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If you would like to help Nancy Byrd:

Donations can be made to a Nancy Bryd account at Old National Bank.

You can learn more about Byrd and her journey or contact her directly through her Facebook page, Pink Love for Nancy.